PRANIDHĀNA – MYSURU YOGA UTSAVA 2026 ART CAMP

An immersive five-day art camp for 15 artists from across India

As part of Mysuru Yoga Utsava 2026, INDICA invites artists from across India to participate in PRANIDHĀNA, a five-day immersive art camp exploring The Power & Grace of Surrender.

Fifteen selected artists will gather in Mysuru to engage with the theme through their individual artistic practices. Over five days, they will create new works while participating in the larger atmosphere of the Utsava, with its explorations of Yoga, Indian thought, spirituality, wellbeing and culture.

The camp will culminate in a public exhibition of the works created during the five days, alongside selected existing works by the participating artists.

The Theme: PRANIDHĀNA

The Power & Grace of Surrender

The theme of Mysuru Yoga Utsava 2026 draws upon Īśvarapraṇidhāna, articulated in Patañjali’s Yoga Sūtras as a profound orientation towards the Divine.

Pranidhāna carries within it the sense of placing, dedicating and offering oneself fully. It invites us to consider surrender not as passivity or withdrawal, but as an active movement beyond the insistence of the individual ego: an offering of action, doership and the fruits of action to that which transcends the individual self.

What happens when the need to control gives way to trust? When action becomes offering? When attention deepens into absorption, or devotion transforms the relationship between the self, the world and the sacred?

The Art Camp invites artists to encounter these questions through their own creative vocabularies. Pranidhāna may find expression through surrender, devotion, absorption, offering, transformation, nature, consciousness, relationship or lived experience. The intention is not to prescribe an interpretation, but to create a space in which artists can engage deeply with the theme and allow an artistic response to emerge.

The Art Camp

The five-day camp is conceived as a space for experience, reflection and creation.

Each of the 15 selected artists will create a new work responding to Pranidhāna. At the same time, artists will be able to experience the wider Mysuru Yoga Utsava and encounter its teachers, practitioners, conversations and programmes.

Rather than approaching the theme only as an intellectual proposition, the camp encourages artists to allow their experience of the Utsava, Mysuru and the five days together to enter the creative process.

On the final day, the works created during the camp will be presented in an exhibition open to the wider MYU community and the public.

Each participating artist may also bring one or two existing works from their practice to be exhibited alongside the work created during the camp. The exhibition will therefore bring together 15 new responses to Pranidhāna with a wider glimpse into the individual practices from which those responses emerged.

Who Can Apply?

Applications are invited from emerging, mid-career and established artists under the age of 40 from across India.

Artists working in painting, sculpture, drawing, mixed media, printmaking and other visual art practices are encouraged to apply.

We particularly welcome artists whose practices engage, or seek to engage, with questions around Indian thought, spirituality, philosophy, nature, consciousness and lived experience.

Artists will be selected on the basis of their artistic practice, their engagement with the theme and the strength of their proposed approach to the camp.

Selection & Important Dates

A curated panel will select 15 artists from across India.

The selection will consider:

• Strength and originality of artistic practice
• Engagement with the theme of Pranidhāna
• Conceptual clarity and artistic potential
• Diversity of artistic voices and practices
• Feasibility within the five-day camp

The final selection will aim to bring together diverse artistic perspectives united by a shared exploration of Pranidhāna.

Key Dates

Application Deadline: 30 October 2026

Selected Artists Announcement: 10 November 2026

What Selected Artists Receive

Each selected artist will receive:

• A 4 × 4 ft or 4 × 5 ft canvas on which to create a new work during the camp
• An honorarium of ₹20,000
• To-and-fro travel expenses
• Accommodation near JCAC, Mysuru, for the duration of the camp
• Access to and participation in the larger Mysuru Yoga Utsava
• Inclusion in the PRANIDHĀNA Art Camp Exhibition

The completed artwork created during the camp will be submitted at the conclusion of the programme and presented as part of the exhibition.

About Mysuru Yoga Utsava

Mysuru Yoga Utsava (MYU) is INDICA’s annual celebration of Yoga, wellbeing and culture in Mysuru, one of the world’s great centres of Yoga.

Rooted in India’s spiritual and knowledge traditions, the Utsava brings together seekers, scholars, teachers, practitioners and artists to encounter Yoga not simply as a physical discipline, but in its philosophical, contemplative, cultural and lived dimensions.

Mysuru Yoga Utsava is an initiative of the Center for Yoga Studies (INDICA Yoga), which creates courses, workshops, retreats, festivals and other immersive experiences grounded in the wisdom of Indian spiritual traditions.